The teachings of the present invention are applicable to any type of unit having a transverse opening therethrough with two sets of drawers mounted in the opening in back-to-back relationship, the sets of drawers being openable from opposite sides of the unit. This kind of arrangement can be found in certain types of laboratory work stations, parts cabinets, kitchen counters and the like. While not intended to be so limited, for purposes of an exemplary showing, the drawer assembly of the present invention will be described in its application to medicine containing and dispensing carts of the type utilized in hospitals and nursing homes.
Prior art workers have devised numerous types of back-to-back drawer arrangements. Some arrangements involve complex and expensive telescoping drawer slide and guide mechanisms. In the medical cart field, for example, back-to-back drawers are frequently provided with slides occupying the same guides. This limits the amount by which each drawer can be opened and remain stable within the cart. Yet another approach is to provide a series of drawers which extend the full distance from one side of the cart to the other and which are openable from either side of the cart. Such drawers may be provided with a central transverse divider, if desired. A problem in such an arrangement, however, lies in the fact that when one of the drawers is opened from one side of the cart, it exposes the drawer beneath and its contents on the opposite side of the cart.
The present invention is based upon the discovery that the problems enumerated above can be eliminated by providing the drawers of a back-to-back drawer assembly with staggered slides. To this end, the transverse drawer-containing opening of the medical cart or like unit is provided on its opposite sides with a plurality of parallel, horizontal, evenly spaced drawer guides extending substantially the length of the opening. Corresponding drawer guides on each side of the opening provide upper horizontal surfaces which are coplanar.
The cart may be provided with two sets of drawers, openable from opposite sides of the cart and mounted therein in back-to-back relationship. All of the drawers may be identical, some differing from others only in vertical depth. Each drawer is provided with a pair of slides, one slide of the pair being mounted on each drawer side. The slides are so mounted that they are vertically staggered, the vertical distance between the lower horizontal working surfaces of the staggered slides of a drawer being substantially equal to the vertical distance between the upper surfaces of an adjacent pair of drawer guides. The the drawer slides may have a length only slightly less than the length of the drawer guides. As a consequence, when a drawer is fully opened on either side of the cart, substantially half the length of its slides remain in contact with their respective guides, assuring that the drawer is firmly mounted in the cart and fully stable. When a pair of drawers are located back-to-back at the same level in the transverse drawer opening of the cart, all four of their slides (two slides per drawer) will contact four different guides and the slides of each drawer will bypass or slip along-side the other drawer. Furthermore, as will be explained hereinafter, the drawers on each side of the cart may be interchangeable with other drawers on that same side or with drawers on the opposite side of the cart. The drawer arrangement of the present invention is simple in construction and relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture. The drawers are firmly held and stable when fully opened and easy to manipulate. The opening of one drawer does not expose any other drawer or its contents.